Mal Ryder

After two flops, the Primitives were feeling the pressure and reacted the way that many young bands do when this happens:  They broke up, but they then reformed around a new lead singer, MAL RYDER.  Ryder was already established in the British scene to some extent, having released four singles, so the band was redubbed Mal and the Primitives.  In this new incarnation, John E. Soul stayed on for awhile as rhythm guitarist, and Jay Roberts became the bass guitarist, though Ryder indicates that Roberts began using his birth name Jeffrey Farthing; they were joined by Stuart Linnell on lead guitar and Mick Charleton on drums.  

Singer and band combinations like this were fairly common in this era; past UARB the Soul Agents backed Rod Stewart during the first half of 1965 for instance.  The backing band for the major English rock star Cliff Richard for many years was one of Britain’s top instrumental rock bands, the Shadows.

Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas had numerous hit songs, including several Lennon/McCartney songs in Britain (Billy J. Kramer was also managed by Brian Epstein) and a major U.S. hit, “Little Children” in March 1964.  They used “with” rather than “and” so as to keep separate identities for the singer and the band.  The Dakotas by themselves had a hit instrumental in the U.K. with “The Cruel Sea”; for its U.S. release, it was retitled “The Cruel Surf” and was later covered by the Ventures.  A curious song by the Dakotas called “7 Pounds of Potatoes” – “ . . . come between me and my love”, according to the lyrics – is included on English Freakbeat, Volume 2 (both the LP and the CD). 

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Here is the sum total of what Wikipedia has to say about Mal Ryder:  “Mal Ryder (real name Paul Bradley Couling) (born 27 February 1944 in Llanfrechfa, Wales), is a British singer who became quite popular in Italy in the late 1960’s, singing with Mal and the Primitives.”  Italian Wikipedia though has sizable articles on the Primitives and also Mal (though surprisingly, there is not even a redirect from Mal Ryder).

As told on Mal Ryder’s website, www.mal.it, he first began playing with an Oxford band called the Meteors, but he jumped ship when asked to become the lead singer for a better local band, the Spirits (formerly known as the Beatniks).  At that point, he began using his stage name, and the band became Mal Ryder and the Spirits.  

This group made three singles from 1963 to 1965; a fourth single came out in Mal Ryder’s name individually.  The first two 45’s, “Cry Baby” b/w “Take Over”, and the Bobby Goldsboro song “See the Funny Little Clown” b/w “Slow Down” were both produced by Peter Sullivan, who was also Tom Jones’ producer in that time period.  The song that Greg Shaw thought was the strongest of these songs, “Forget It” (from November 1964) is included on two CD’s that I have, English Freakbeat, Volume 1 and English Freakbeat, Volume 4.  As far as I am concerned, this bouncy R&B song with gruff, throaty vocals stacks up well with all of the Primitives material that I have heard. 

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Mal and the Primitives released just one single in Great Britain; “Every Minute of Every Day” b/w “Pretty Little Face” (the latter song written by bandmember John E. Soul) came out on Pye Records and also made no impact on the charts, like the earlier Primitives singles.  About their final U.K. single, Bruce Eder has this praise:  “They had a sound similar to the original group, although [Mal] Ryder was more of a dramatic singer, with an intense but less raspy delivery, more along the lines of a pop-soul vocalist like Chris Farlowe in his later 1960’s incarnation.  ‘Every Minute [of Every Day]’ was a suitable A-side, similar to the group’s past work, while ‘Pretty Little Face’ was a lot more elegant than anything the original group had ever done, right down to the rather lyrical acoustic lead guitar doubling the opening piano part, similar to what the guitars on Bill Wyman’s ‘In Another Land’ [by the Rolling Stones] do on the middle and final verse of that song.” 

In January 1966, they did a brief tour of Norway; as Mal Ryder tells it:  “It seemed as though they hadn’t seen anything like us before; we felt like the Beatles.” 

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Of the songs that I have heard, the deceptively languid “Johnny No” is my favorite Primitives song and is included on the English Freakbeat, Volume 4 CD.  The mix of foreign-language lyrics and an English tag line reminds me of the delightful 1980 song “Is Vic There?” by the British band Department S; I once had the “French version” of the song on a small punk rock CD that I stumbled on in a bargain bin.  Evidently there was the regular English version and also an Italian version.  

“Johnny No” by the Primitives is identified by Mal Ryder and others as being a cover of “Thunder and Lightning”; I have been unable to find the connection, however.  Most of the songs called “Thunder and Lightning” that are mentioned on the Internet were released long after this song. 

The only song that I know of which (barely) predates “Johnny No” is “Knock on Wood” (written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper) that features the dramatic lyric:  “It’s like thunder . . . lightning / The way you love me is frightening”.  Otis Redding, David Bowie and Eric Clapton all recorded versions of this song; however, “Knock on Wood” doesn’t sound at all like “Johnny No” to me.  (I finally thought to track it down through the songwriting credits; “Johnny No” is based on a 1963 Hoyt Axton song that I did not know called “Thunder N’ Lightnin’” that Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs also released as a “B” side).   

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While still being backed by the Primitives, Mal Ryder later moved to the forefront and began changing his sound.  Though I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere else, evidently he was using only his first name “Mal” during this period, according to Italian Wikipedia.  Under this name, he had a million-selling record (a remarkable achievement in Italy) with his Italian version of the Bee Gees song “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” (released as “Pensiero d’Amore”).  Mal Ryder also starred in four Italian movies and had a recording career spanning 37 years, including tours throughout Europe and also in America. 

For Allmusic, Bruce Eder has this overview of their later years:  “Unfortunately, as the records focused more and more on [Mal] Ryder, [the Primitives] became more of a kind of generic cover outfit for English-language songs of all genres.  According to annotator David Wells, their R&B orientation gave way to pieces such as ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ [by Traffic] and ‘Song of a Baker’ [by Small Faces], but also ‘Love Letters in the Sand’ and (astonishingly) ‘Over the Rainbow’.  Their edge was gone and, by the mid-’70s, so was the band.” 

(May 2015)

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